1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to broadcast materials, and more particularly to a system and method for measuring broadcast material audiences.
2. Related Art
Broadcast material providers have historically relied on third-party ratings services to evaluate their listenership and to make programming decisions. However, such ratings services often rely on manual techniques to gather listeners"" preferences. According to one such technique commonly used in the radio industry, booklets are distributed to random families intended to represent a cross-section of the listening public. These families are instructed to fill out the booklets according to their actual listening patterns.
Such manual techniques are subject to error and inaccuracy. For example, some listeners may put off filling out the booklet until the end of the week. At the end of the week, they then attempt to recall the programs they actually heard. The accuracy of the reporting then, is subject to the accuracy of the listener""s memory. Additionally, there is little that can be done to prevent listeners from purposely skewing the results by intentionally filling out the provided forms inaccurately.
Another disadvantage of these manual techniques is the time delay inherent therein. A station program director may receive his or her station""s ratings as much as 90 days after the fact. This delay is undesirable, as program directors cannot see in real time the effects of their programming decisions. Often times, a programming xe2x80x98mistakexe2x80x99 can remain undetected for many months until the program director finally receives the rating results.
The present invention is directed toward systems and methods for measuring the audience of a broadcast program and for providing audience measurement information to the broadcaster. According to one aspect of the invention, broadcast materials are provided to one or more users from a server via a network. For example, according to one embodiment, the broadcast material is delivered to the user in segments such as, for example, tracks of music, advertisements, and promotional materials in a radio broadcast. In this embodiment, the supplemental materials can be coordinated with the individual segments (e.g., tracks) such that supplemental materials relating to the segments can be provided as the segments are being provided to the user.
Supplemental materials can be provided in a coordinated fashion with the broadcast materials such that they relate to the actual broadcast materials as they are being streamed or otherwise delivered to the user. Supplemental materials can include, for example, images, video clips, audio clips, data, or other materials that may be provided to the user in conjunction with the broadcast materials. The supplemental materials can also include advertising information that is provided to the user during particular segments of the broadcast material.
One example application of this aspect is found in the broadcast of radio broadcast materials over the Internet. According to this example application, the radio broadcast materials can include a plurality of tracks that can be streamed to a user via the Internet. The tracks can include, for example, music tracks, advertising tracks, DJ voice or introduction tracks, promotional tracks, and any other track that a station my wish to broadcast as part of its broadcast material. In one embodiment, the tracks are provided along with program data that can indicate, for example, an identification of the track, the type of track, and other pertinent or relevant information regarding the particular track being broadcast at that time. In one embodiment, the program data can include, for example, a cut code. This information can be provided to an Internet broadcast service provider that xe2x80x9cbroadcastsxe2x80x9d the broadcast materials and the program data to the listener""s Internet terminal.
The listener receives the broadcast material and the program data via the Internet connection and plays it on his or her computer, workstation or other Internet terminal. This can be a web page type player or a downloaded player that is resident on the user""s terminal. When the user""s terminal receives a track to be played, the user""s terminal takes the program data associated with that track and uses that data to access one or more servers to retrieve the supplemental information.
When a user logs onto a server to receive the program materials, a tracking event is provided to a measurement server. The measurement server stores the event and additional tracking information. The tracking information can include, for example, a date/time stamp, program data identifying a current segment and other relevant information.
Additional tracking events can be generated and stored based on user activities. Such activities can include, for example, log-on and log-off events, retreival of supplemental information, ordering of products and other user activities. The data provided to the measurement server can also include demographic data for the various users. In this manner, tracking events can be filtered or summarized by demographic information.
The tracking event and associated information can be stored in a database for historical or archive purposes. This data can be later recalled and reports run to provide listener information to a broadcaster. The data can also be provided to the broadcaster in real time such that the broadcaster can get an indication of their listening audience. Real-time information such as this can show a program director or other person the number of listeners at any given moment.
Further features and advantages of the invention as well as the structure and operation of various embodiments of the invention are described in detail below with reference to the accompanying drawings.